The controversy was immediate. The indie Seattle duo’s early wins sparked a trending topic on Twitter as outraged hip-hop purists and critics admonished voters for picking the pair’s work over albums from Drake, Kanye West, Jay Z and Lamar.

It was always unlikely that the duo, up for seven awards including song and album of the year, would leave the Grammys empty-handed. Still, many didn’t expect the Seattle hip-hop outliers to make a clean sweep of the genre categories.

But neither did Macklemore.

Following his bounty of wins, the rapper sent a text message to Lamar and later posted a screenshot of the message to his nearly 3 million Instagram followers.

“You got robbed. I wanted you to win. You should have,” he wrote. “It’s weird and sucks that I robbed you. I was gonna say that during the speech. Then the music started playing during my speech, and I froze. Anyway, you know what it is. Congrats on this year and your music. Appreciate you as an artist and as a friend. Much love.”

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Fans have been heavy-handed with criticism of Macklemore’s success. With a more pop-oriented brand of rap informed as much by indie rock as traditional hip-hop, he’s dominated mainstream radio with hits like “Thrift Shop,” “Can’t Hold Us” and “Same Love.”

Despite a rise from underground rap to mainstream star that took more than a decade, Macklemore has become an easy punchline in the rap world, often dismissed as a gimmicky pop act.